Pay attention to the Congressman behind the curtain

Pay attention to Congressman Peter Roskam hiding behind the curtain. It's not a real curtain, its a curtain of disdain for the voters of Ilinois' Sixth Congressional District whom Congressman Roskam has still neither provided a debate with his challenger Leslie Coolidge, he hasn't even committed to one yet. When he never responded to her personal August 14th request for a series of town hall style debates, the League of Women Voters weighed in. There are apparently, discussions between the League and Roskam's campaign staff for a single debate on October 11. Challenger Coolidge has already agreed to show up October 11. Congressman Roskam has not.

Back in 2010, College of DuPage radio station WDCB interviewed Congressman Roskam about his re-election race against challenger Ben Lowe. Roskam said that anytime someone is on the ballot for election, you have to take them seriously. In that race the Congressman's serious response to Ben Lowe was to never utter his name and never debate him.

Maybe the $1,650,000 in Roskam's campaign coffers compared to just $25,000 available to Coolidge, is telling the Congressman he doesn't need to debate. If so, it dramatizes the pernicious effect that money has in demeaning and dumbing down our electoral process. Maybe the astute career politician Roskam has grasped that his margin of victory in three Congressional elections has been inversely proportional to the number of debates he engages in, so that avoiding debates is simply good politics. Either way, Roskam's artful dodging against giving his constituents debates early and often so they can make a valid comparison about the candidates' positions face to face, is not good governance.

Also published in the Glen Ellyn News, September 26, 2012